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One of the strongest selling points used by the Alberta and federal governments to convince Canadians that rapid oilsands development is good for everyone is that it will mean jobs and prosperity for people across the country.

A new report by Alberta-based Pembina Institute shoots a few holes in that piece of propaganda.

It points out that Alberta stands to gain almost everything when it comes to jobs and revenue.

Not only that, because the Canadian dollar is so robust, mainly due to commodity exports, manufacturing spinoffs from accelerating oilsands development may well end up in the U.S. or other countries because it would be less expensive than relying on Canadian manufacturers in Ontario and Quebec.

Pembina has gained a solid reputation for providing research and insight into the environmental aspects of rapid oilsands development. But it has never called for a dead stop of oilsands development. As it states in this recent study: “There have been and will continue to be tangible economic benefits from oilsands development to the Canadian economy.”

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But Pembina, which partnered with Equiterre, a Quebec environmental group for this study, also asks a valid question: is rapid oilsands development creating problems that may soon outpace the benefits?

One of those problems is the uneven distribution of new employment. According to economists’ reports cited in the Pembina/Equiterre report between 74 and 86 per cent of new jobs created by tarsands development will be in Alberta. Alberta will also realize 95 per cent of GDP investment.

Most Albertans, especially all those thousands who moved here from other provinces, certainly see that as an advantage. On average since 2008, the per-capita income differential between Alberta and the rest of Canada was $12,000.

But employers in other provinces are left short of skilled workers and must pay more for them when they find them.

The report also points out that relying on resources such as the tarsands for employment and government revenue is a dangerous game because oil prices are so volatile.

The best example of this is right in Alberta.

The provincial government never seems to know from one year to the next what its actual revenue will be because it relies so much on oil and gas royalties. Hospitals, schools, and social service agencies are often hit with sudden cutbacks because government didn’t plan for a downturn in resource revenue.

In the private sector the swing in commodity prices often means sudden employee layoffs. Just two weeks ago energy giant Encana announced it was slashing its 4,000-strong workforce by 20 per cent because of weak natural gas prices.

And yet the feds and Alberta want the whole country to be more reliant on oilsands development?

Of late they have been so enthusiastic that they have described proposed pipelines that would carry bitumen from Alberta to points west, east and south as “nation building” projects similar in vision and scope to the building of the national railway.

But Pembina is not so sure it’s a valid comparison.

“The risk/reward trade-off from expanding oilsands infrastructure and development is arguably unbalanced in many Canadian provinces — the rewards are limited and uncertain, while the environmental and health risks are significant and real.”

No doubt B.C. Premier Christy Clark had all those risks in mind when she demanded that Alberta compensate her province for allowing Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline to cross northern wilderness and waters.

Now that she has won re-election Clark has backed off those demands. Instead she and Alberta Premier Alison Redford seem quite cosy.

But sooner or later the risk and reward questions will have to be settled.

Because the rewards to the rest of Canada are definitely not as rosy as some governments would have us believe.

Gillian Steward is a Calgary writer and journalist and former managing editor of the Calgary Herald. Her column appears every other week.

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